Main:Mykayla Skinner
Gilbert, Arizona, USA |Row 4 title = Club |Row 4 info = Desert Lights Gymnastics |Row 5 title = Coach(es) |Row 5 info = Lisa Spini |Row 6 title = Years on National Team |Row 6 info = 2011-12, 2013-2016, 2019 |Row 7 title = Current status |Row 7 info = Active |Row 8 title = College team |Row 8 info = University of Utah}} Mykayla Skinner (born December 9, 1996 in Gilbert, Arizona) is am American elite gymnast and an alternate to the 2016 U.S. Olympic team. She is a 2014 World team gold medalist and vault bronze medalist, and 2014 four-time Pan American Champion. She trains at Desert Lights Gymnastics and is coached by Lisa Spini. Her favorite event is floor exercise. Skinner is one of few gymnasts capable of performing a roundoff, half-on, double twist off vault, a roundoff, half-on, 2½ twist off vault, a triple twisting double back, a triple back, and a double twisting double layout on floor exercise.triple doubleroundoff, half-on, 2½ offtriple back She currently attends the University of Utah and competes for their gymnastics team. Junior Career Skinner's national debut came at the J.O. Nationals in 2009, where she tied for first on vault. Her elite debut came the following year at the 2010 Junior Visa Championships, where she placed eighth on vault. The year after, Skinner dropped down to Level 10 and competed at the 2011 Nastia Liukin SuperGirl Cup. She tied for silver on both balance beam and floor exercise. After that, she returned to elite-level gymnastics and won silver on vault, and placed tenth in the all-around at the Junior Visa Championships. She was added to the Junior National team that year. Senior Career 2012 Skinner's senior debut came in 2012. She competed in her first international competition at the City of Jesolo Trophy. She placed fourth on floor exercise, fifth on vault, and tied for tenth in the all-around. At the Visa Championships that year, she won bronze on vault behind Alicia Sacramone and Brandie Jay. However, she was not named to the National team, and did not advance to the Olympic Trials. Skinner has verbally committed to the University of Utah for the 2015-2016 school year. 2013 Several training videos were posted on Skinner's Facebook. In one of them, posted in mid-January, she was shown training a Cheng vault (roundoff, half-on, laid out salto with 1½ twist), which has a start value of 6.4. Another video showed her training a double twisting double layout on floor. At the Fiesta Bowl Invitational in February 2013, Skinner debuted her new floor routine with a laid-out double double, a tucked double-double, an Arabian double front, and a 1½ twist through to 2½ twist. She won the all-around, vault, bars, and beam, and placed eighth on floor exercise. At the US Classic in July, Skinner placed tenth in the all-around, second on vault, thirteenth on bars, ninth on beam, and thirteenth on floor. Later, at the National Championships, she placed sixth in the all-around, third on vault and floor exercise, ninth on uneven bars, and eleventh on balance beam. She was added to the National team. 2014 In March, she was named to the senior American team for the City of Jesolo Trophy.Jesolo There, she contributed to the American's gold medal finish, but came in fourth in the all-around after a fall on floor exercise. She originally qualified to vault and beam finals, but was switched to compete on floor instead of beam, and won both events. She competed at the U.S. Classic in early August, winning silver on vault and placing fifth in the all-around, sixth on beam and floor, and tenth on bars. At Nationals, she repeated her fifth place all-around finish and won silver on vault and floor. Immediately after Nationals, she was named to the American team for the Pan American Senior Championships and was wildly successful there, winning team, all-around, vault, and floor exercise gold, and placing seventh on beam. She went on to compete at the World Championships in Nanning, China that October. She performed well the entire competition, helping the team win gold in the team final and scooping up a bronze in the vault final. She was edged out of the medals on floor exercise by the last competitor and was visibly upset about missing the bronze. 2015 With the Olympics approaching, Skinner chose to defer her enrollment at the University of Utah for a year. She began her competitive season at the American Cup. She had a rough time in podium training two days prior to the competition, falling on her Cheng and Moors. She downgraded her competition vault to a DTY. She also had a major balance check on beam, but posted a decent bars score and was able to come through on her floor routine to place second behind her teammate Simone Biles. In July, she competed at the U.S. Classic. After suffering falls on beam and floor, she placed seventh in the all-around and won silver on vault. She had a better time at the National Championships in August, defending her silver medal on vault, tying for bronze on floor with Bailie Key, and placing seventh in the all-around. In October, she was named the alternate to the U.S. team at the World Championships. 2016 Skinner started off the season at the Glasgow World Cup in March. She successfully competed her Amanar for the first time since 2012, and won gold in the all-around. Later that month, she won team and vault gold and placed fifth in the all-around at the City of Jesolo Trophy. In June, she competed at the U.S. Classic, only competing three events: vault, where she won silver, uneven bars, where she placed sixteenth, and balance beam, where she placed eighth. At the National Championships, she won silver on vault, bronze on floor exercise, and placed tenth in the all-around, seventeenth on uneven bars, and eighteenth on balance beam. She successfully petitioned to the Olympic Trials, where she pretty much had the meet of her life. She placed second on vault, fourth in the all-around, fifth on beam and floor, and twelfth on uneven bars. She was named an alternate to the Olympic team. Skinner began attending the University of Utah in the fall. 2019 After three years of competing at the University of Utah, Skinner returned to elite gymnastics in mid-July, competing at the U.S. Classic. She chose not to compete on the uneven bars, and posted decent scores on vault and balance beam, but scored low on floor exercise after balking on her last tumbling pass. In August, she competed at the National Championships, where she won bronze on vault, and placed fifth on floor, eighth in the all-around, ninth on bars, and fourteenth on beam. She was added back to the National Team. After a successful selection camp, she was named to the U.S.' six-person team for the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. After podium training, she was named the alternate. After the World Championships, she announced her engagement to her boyfriend.engagement Medal Count Floor Music 2011-2012 - "La Cumparsita" by DJ G Taylor & Boulevard Tango Club 2013-2014 - "Beatroot" by Bond 2014 - "Cry Me a River" by Sven Duijff 2015 - "Scotland the Brave" remix 2016 - "Czardas" by Leahy/"Czardas" by Daniel Haaksman 2019 - "It's Magical" by Rusiana References